Our Bathing Water Enhancement Programme - proposals for WorthingWorking together to protect and enhance bathing water across our region betweennow and summer 2019

Designated bathing waters

Reservoirs

Water supply and wastewatertreatment areas

Wastewater treatment areas only

Water supply only areas

BasingstokeAndover

SalisburyWinchester

Otterbourne

Southampton

LymingtonChristchurch

Petersfield

Haslemere

Chichester

Bognor Regis

Portsmouth

Newport Ryde

LittlehamptonWorthing

Hove

Horsham

Brighton

BurgessHill

HaywardsHeath

Crawley

Lewes

Tonbridge

Eastbourne

BexhillHastings

NewRomney

Tunbridge Wells

Lydd

AshfordFolkestone

Dover

Deal

RamsgateHerne Bay

CanterburyFaversham

Maidstone

Isle of Sheppey

Gillingham

Gravesend

Chatham

Sevenoaks

Dartford

Bewl Water

Darwell

Powdermill

Bewl WaterWeir Wood

HAMPSHIRE WEST SUSSEX

EAST SUSSEX

KENT

SOUTH EASTWATER

SOUTH EASTWATER

AFFINITYWATER

SUTTON &EAST SURREY

WATERTHAMESWATER

SOUTH EASTWATER

PORTSMOUTHWATER

ISLE OF WIGHT

WESSEXWATER

BOURNEMOUTHWATER

Protecting and enhancing our bathing waters Our region’s bathing waters are precious and among the cleanest in the UK, and you’ve

quite rightly asked us to continue to protect and enhance them. So, we’re carrying out

a multi-million pound Bathing Water Enhancement Programme, the first of its kind in the UK,

to do just that.

We’ve set aside £31.5 million of funding for this innovative programme, and are working together with local councils, the

Environment Agency and other stakeholders to deliver it. Between now and the 2019 bathing season, we’ll work together

to investigate 21 of our region’s beautiful bathing waters, and to make sure that seven of them reach the ‘excellent’ quality

standard. Although our programme’s investment comes to an end in 2019, we’re confident the enhancements that are

delivered will help to maintain excellent water quality at these sites for many years to come.

Our bathing waters

We’re proud of the wonderful beaches and 83 designated

bathing waters along the 700 miles of our region’s coastline

in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Our region

has one of the highest numbers of Blue Flags in the country,

and our bathing waters have never been cleaner. More than

50 have already achieved the ‘excellent’ quality standard

despite a change in legislation in 2015, which made the

standards much tougher.

Protecting and enhancing these important bathing areas

is a priority for us, as we know it is for you, and the

millions of visitors we welcome to our region every year.

That’s why we’ve set ourselves a demanding target which

is over and above what our regulators require of us. We’ll

work together with other stakeholders to enhance 21

shortlisted bathing waters from across our region, and to

achieve the ‘excellent’ standard at seven of them by the

2019 bathing season.

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We’re currently focused on working with other stakeholders to enhance 21 of our region’s

bathing waters, and to bring seven of them up to the ‘excellent’ quality standard by 2019.

This document summarises:

• who and what can influence bathing water quality in our region

• our Bathing Water Enhancement Programme and how, by working together with other stakeholders, bathing water

improvements will be delivered

• the findings from our investigations and the solutions we’ll deliver in partnership with other stakeholders, specifically to

improve Worthing’s bathing water quality.

On page 10 we also explain what you can do to help make a big difference to

the bathing water at Worthing, and across our region. This includes following

a few simple steps that everyone can take, and supporting our Beauty of the

Beach campaign.

Challenges we face

Your support

This document

This is an ambitious programme and we can’t solve all of the

challenges ourselves. Bathing water quality is influenced by

a range of factors, many of which are not under our control.

To succeed, we’ll work with a variety of other stakeholders

to deliver this programme. We’ll also carry out shared

awareness campaigns to seek essential support for our

work from local communities and visitors to our coastline.

We’re committed to increasing the number of ‘excellent’

bathing waters within our region, and are proud to be the

first UK water company to pursue such a comprehensive

programme of work and investment to try to achieve this.

We’re delighted with the support we’ve received for our

groundbreaking Bathing Water Enhancement Programme.

Our customers have told us they’re willing to pay a little

more through their water bills to help us fund this important

work. This will enable us to invest many millions of pounds

in making improvements over the next couple of years.

Your support will continue to play a vital role in helping

protect and enhance our region’s bathing waters now,

and for the future.

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These include our customers, local councils, the

Environment Agency and private landowners. We’re

working with all stakeholders to ensure that together, we

can achieve the highest standards for our region’s bathing

waters.

Just as our responsibilities for improving bathing water

quality are focused on operating our wastewater network

effectively, other stakeholders’ responsibilities include

preventing contaminated rainwater running from roads and

agricultural land into our bathing waters, and reducing

pollution from boats, wild animals and pets.

We’ll work to fix the bathing water quality issues that are

within our control, and if issues sit outside of this, we’ll

support other stakeholders (shown below), to resolve them.

There are a number of stakeholders who, like us, have a responsibility for our coastal

water quality, and play an essential role in protecting and enhancing it.

Influencing bathing water quality

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Southern WaterWastewater network operation

CustomersMisconnections*,

domestic septic tanks, human and pet waste,

litter and unflushables such as wet wipes

Environment AgencyBeach, sea and sea lifeprotection and conservation

CharitiesBeach cleanliness

and wildlife conservation

Land and riparianowners**

livestock manure disposal and slurry storage

Local authorityand Highways

EnglandRainwater from

streets, urban areas and main roads

SeweragesystemownersPrivate wastewaternetwork operation

HarbourAuthority

Vehicle pollutantdisposal, sea and sea life protection

* Misconnected properties have their waste pipes incorrectly plumbed into surface water drains, allowing untreated wastewater to reach bathing waters.

** Riparian owners are people with watercourses on their land.

We’re the first water company in the UK to

launch such a comprehensive Bathing Water

Enhancement Programme. It investigates

the sources of pollution currently preventing

some of the bathing waters in our region

from achieving the ‘excellent’ standard.

Through our programme we’re working

with local councils, and other stakeholders

to resolve these issues, and to improve the

quality of our bathing waters.

Through our Bathing Water Enhancement

Programme we’re:

• Consulting with our customers, stakeholders and

regulators, to understand bathing water challenges and

needs.

• Planning what can be done, alongside relevant

stakeholders and regulators, to resolve pollution issues

and to meet community needs.

• Investigating further the sources of pollution in each

selected bathing area.

• Prioritising some of our bathing waters for water

quality enhancement work.

• Investing millions of pounds to resolve bathing water

pollution issues and to carry out improvements.

• Delivering bathing water quality enhancement work

independently, and through working together with other

stakeholders.

We’ve spent more than a year carrying out detailed

investigations at 21 of our region’s 83 designated bathing

waters. We’ve now shortlisted them for recommended

enhancements which will be phased over the next two

years. We’ve also been consulting and working with

other bathing water stakeholders to agree enhancement

plans, and who will take the lead on delivering the various

aspects of them.

Seven bathing waters have been shortlisted to be

enhanced over the next couple of years, with the aim of

achieving the ‘excellent’ standard for each of them by the

2019 bathing season. This shortlist, and our recommended

approach, have now been scrutinised and agreed by our

Customer Advisory Panel and Board of Directors, and by an

independent audit.

Our Bathing Water Enhancement Programme

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Rigorous evaluationand shortlisting of

83 bathing waters to 21waters investigated to understand

pollution causes and solutions

21 technical summaries developed

7 bathing waters recommended for interventions

Enhancements carried out

independently and

working together with other stakeholders,

to resolve issues and enhance bathing water quality

Evaluateand prioritise Investigate Enhance

83

21

Shortlisted bathingConsultations and planningwith our customers, stakeholders and regulators,to understand issues and solutions, and to agreephased intervention plans

More than 3,900customer surveyscompletedLaunch of campaigns to support enhancement of bathing water quality

Consultand plan

6 southernwater.co.uk

Here’s how the programme is going to be delivered across the 21 shortlisted bathing waters in our region:

Isle of Wight 1 Shanklin

Kent 2 Deal Castle3 Leysdown 4 Minster Leas

Sussex 5 Selsey 6 Middleton-on-Sea 7 Worthing

Gold (7)

Silver (6)

Achieve ‘excellent’ standard by 2019

Pollution source and solution

High certainty

Southern Waterinvestment

Yes

Delivery of enhancementsBy Southern Water and in

partnership with stakeholders

Hampshire1 Stokes Bay

Isle of Wight 2 Cowes

Kent3 Folkestone4 Herne Bay5 Sheerness6 Tankerton

Pollution sourceand solution

Medium certainty

Southern WaterinvestmentYes, some

Delivery of enhancementsBy Southern Water and in

partnership with stakeholders

Bronze (8)Hampshire1 Hill Head

Kent2 Herne Bay Central 3 Littlestone 4 Margate Fulsam Rock5 St Mary’s Bay

Sussex 6 Bognor Regis (Aldwick) 7 Brighton8 Felpham

Pollution sourceand solution

Low certainty

Southern WaterinvestmentYes, some

Delivery of enhancementsBy stakeholders with support

from Southern Water

Potential to maintainrecent ‘excellent’

standard

Gold bathing waters – Seven bathing waters have been prioritised for enhancements. These have been selected based on our investigation findings which indicated:

Between now and 2019, we’ll work at these seven sites independently, and with other stakeholders, to find and fix the causes of pollution which are currently preventing them from achieving ‘excellent’.

Silver bathing waters – As well as improving the sevengold bathing waters, we’ve also selected six silver bathing waters for discretionary funding. These sites have the potential to maintain their recent ‘excellent’ standard, as measured by the official classification. We propose to work in partnership with the local councils to make sure that these bathing waters continue to be resilient against environmental pressures, and we’ll contribute to required improvements where appropriate.

Bronze bathing waters – The solutions required to improve the remaining eight bronze bathing waters are either too complex, or too costly, to be fully delivered within the programme’s timeframe and budget. We’ll carry out further investigations at these sites, and aim to develop recommendations that could improve their bathing water quality in the future. Alongside this work, we’ll assist responsible stakeholders with enhancement work by:

We’ll carry out high-level investigations at the 21 shortlisted sites to highlight the areas we suspect have property misconnections. We’ll then work with the local council to encourage property owners to check their pipes and fix any misconnections.

Due to the range of factors which affect bathing water quality, we’re unable to resolve all of them ourselves. But we hope that our Bathing Water Enhancement Programme and the work we’re doing in partnership with other stakeholders, such as our Beauty of the Beach campaign with our colleagues at the Environment Agency, will encourage wider bathing water communities to come together. By joining forces we can improve bathing water quality across our region for the benefit of everyone.

• championing their improvement initiatives and campaigns• funding property misconnection surveys, where appropriate• sharing information we’ve gathered for these sites, including

our recent detailed investigation findings.

• we’ve a strong understanding of the sources of pollution and the solutions needed to resolve them

• that once implemented, the required solutions are likely to achieve the bathing water ‘excellent’ standard by the 2019 bathing season.

NEW IMAGE TOBE PROVIDED

We’ve worked hard to improve bathing water quality at

Worthing in recent years. We’ll invest up to £2.7 million in

further improvements over the next couple of years.

Working independently, and also in partnership with local

councils and other stakeholders, we’ll find and fix the

sources of pollution with the aim of achieving the ‘excellent’

standard for Worthing’s bathing water quality, by the 2019

bathing season.

Worthing Beach, West Sussex

Worthing bathing water lies within a gently sloping sand and shingle bay on the beautiful

West Sussex coastline. Popular with local residents, tourists and windsurfers, this resort is

one of the seven gold bathing sites prioritised for improvements, as part of our Bathing Water

Enhancement Programme.

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Worthing bathing water

Worthing has been selected as one of our seven gold bathing waters because:

• we’ve a strong understanding of the sources of pollution, and the solutions needed to resolve them

• carrying out identified improvements could help Worthing to achieve the ‘excellent’ quality standard by the end of the 2019

bathing season.

Over the last year we’ve carried out many

detailed investigations at Worthing. We’ve

combined this recent work with our archive

of data for this area (some of which dates

back more than ten years), and other

information given to us by bathing water

stakeholders. Together with local insight

and expertise, this has given us a clear

understanding of the environmental factors

and sources of pollution currently reducing

the quality of Worthing’s bathing water.

Our investigations have included:

• Environmental analysis, testing and modelling to understand the impact of tidal patterns,

coastal flows, rainfall and seasonality on bathing water

quality in this area.

• Water quality sampling and DNA testing

to confirm the origin of pollution in Worthing’s bathing

waters, and to pinpoint its source.

• Asset surveys to check the effectiveness and

operation of our local assets, such as wastewater

treatment works and pumping stations.

• Surface water assessments to identify pollution

from misconnected properties.

Why is Worthing a gold bathing water?

Our investigations

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Sewer maintenance

We inspect our sewerage network on an

ongoing basis and fix any problems we find.

Sewers can be damaged in many ways,

from age deterioration and blockages, to

roadworks and even tree roots.

We’ve found: • A small section of broken sewer near to

the junction between West Parade and

Wallace Avenue, which may allow small

amounts of pollution to reach the bathing

water.

Our solutions include: • Ongoing sewer inspections targeted at

the areas around our bathing water.

• Reinforcing sewer repairs with watertight

lining.

• Jet cleaning the sewers close to our

bathing water. A high number of sewer

blockages are caused by fats, oils

and grease entering our system and

unflushables, such as wet wipes and

nappies. You can help us to keep our

sewers running clear by following the

advice at

southernwater.co.uk/keepitclear.

Misconnected properties

Property misconnections are common. This

means their waste pipes are incorrectly

plumbed into surface water drains, allowing

wastewater from toilets, washing machines,

dishwashers etc, to reach bathing water,

without being treated. An industry report

suggests around 140,000 properties in the

UK are currently misconnected*.

We’ve found: • Toilet waste and other pollution from

surface water drains near to Heene

Terrace, and other locations, releasing

directly onto Worthing Beach.

Our solutions include: • Surface water surveys and forensic

assessments to trace the misconnected

private properties responsible for the

pollution.

Working with the local council to:

• Notify the owners of misconnected private

properties and ensure the issues are

resolved.

Animalfaeces

Lots of wild animals and pets use our

beaches and bathing waters. Dog, bird

and other animal waste can seriously affect

bathing water quality. It’s important we don’t

allow this on our beaches and to enter our

bathing waters. We’ll continue to work with

other stakeholders including local councils,

to discourage animal faeces from polluting

bathing waters.

We’ve found: • High levels of faecal pollution from dogs,

seabirds and gulls within the bathing

water around our coastline.

Our solutions include: Working with the local council, the

Environment Agency and Keep Britain

Tidy to:

• Limit animal access to our beaches,

where appropriate.

• Manage the roosting sites around our

bathing waters and the impact of seagulls

and other birds, where appropriate,

and in agreement with relevant wildlife

organisations.

• Campaign against litter and the feeding of

animals on the beach. Both lead to animal

faeces pollution in our bathing waters.

We’ve joined forces with the Environment

Agency on the Beauty of the Beach

campaign to celebrate our coastline and

to help people play their part in keeping

our beaches beautiful. For more

information on this campaign and what

you can do to help please visit

southernwater.co.uk/beautyofthebeach.

Our investigations have found a number of different types of pollution currently impacting

Worthing’s bathing water quality. Over the next couple of years you’ll see us, and other

bathing water stakeholders, working hard to tackle the sources of this pollution. The solutions

we’ll carry out together will improve the bathing water quality at Worthing, and the other six

gold sites across our region.

Our findings and the solutions

9 southernwater.co.uk

* UKWIR, 2013. Sewer Misconnections: What

is the True Non-Agricultural Diffuse Water

Pollution Impact? Report 13/SW/01/3,

UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR).

ISBN: 1840576707.

We’ve received a lot of support for our Bathing Water Enhancement Programme, and we

know that you, and other stakeholders, are already working hard to protect and preserve

our region’s precious bathing waters.

However, our investigations and findings suggest that there’s still more to do, and by doing it we’ll achieve the ‘excellent’

standard at Worthing, as soon as 2019. There are lots of things everyone can do to help improve bathing waters including

these simple steps:

Make sure all of your rubbish and litter

goes in a bin, whether you’re at home,

out and about or down on the beach –

and recycle wherever possible.

Always pick up your dog poo and put it in

the bin - preferably one specifically for it,

if possible.

Flushing anything other than the 3Ps – (pee,

poo and paper), down your toilet can cause

serious blockages. Always put unflushables

like wet wipes, tampons, nappies, cotton

buds, razors and condoms in the bin.

Look out for misconnected drains and

poorly located and maintained septic

tanks in your home, as they can pollute

surface water systems. By looking

after your home you can improve your

beach too. To make sure you don’t

have misconnected drains please visit

connectright.org.uk.

Why not take part in a two minute beach

clean? Every piece of litter removed from

the beach matters. Just two minutes’

worth of activity will help protect the

health and welfare of our beaches,

bathing waters, animals and marine

life that live there. For more information,

please visit beachclean.net.

Don’t feed the birds! When they flock for tasty morsels, they also tend to poo.

Bird poo contains very high levels of bacteria which seriously pollutes our bathing

waters. So, the more you feed them, the more they come back and the cycle, and

the pollution, continues.

Avoid pouring fat, oil and grease down the

sink. It can harden in pipes and cause

wastewater to back up - polluting the

environment. And forget the common

misconception - mixing fat with hot water

and washing up liquid doesn’t make a

difference! So let it cool, pour it into a

suitable container like an old plastic

bottle, and put it in the bin.

What you can do

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Here are some useful links to other work and initiatives that are happening to help enhance bathing water quality in our region. We support them, and it would be great if you did too!

Useful links

11 southernwater.co.uk

The #2minutebeachclean campaign is run by a not-for-profit organisation that asks beach

users to clean the beach for just 2 minutes at a time – every time they use it. We support

this initiative and are glad to see thousands across the world are too. Use this link to find

out how you can get involved. beachclean.net

To celebrate our coastline and help people play a part in keeping our beaches beautiful,

we’ve launched the Beauty of the Beach campaign with our colleagues at the Environment

Agency. By visiting this webpage you can learn more about what impacts bathing water

quality, and how you can help protect your beaches with some simple steps.

southernwater.co.uk/beautyofthebeach

ConnectRight is a partnership of organisations, including Southern Water, who are working

to reduce water pollution from drains and sewers across the UK. Misconnected drains and

poorly located and maintained septic tanks, can pollute local streams, rivers and beaches,

damage wildlife and put our health at risk. By looking after your home you can improve

your beach too. The ConnectRight website has further information on how to make sure

you don’t have misconnected drains.

connectright.org.uk

The Environment Agency, assesses bathing water quality at bathing sites in England, and

awards them annually with a grading of excellent, good, sufficient or poor. Every year, from

May to September, they carry out weekly assessments to measure bathing water quality. This

useful webpage will help you to find bathing water profiles for the beaches in your area.

The Blue Flag scheme is run by Keep Britain Tidy. To gain a blue flag a beach must meet

a number of conditions including ‘excellent’ water quality. For more information about this

scheme and your local beaches, please visit the Keep Britain Tidy website.

keepbritaintidy.org

2 minute beach clean campaign

Beauty of the Beach campaign

ConnectRight

EA bathing water profiles

Keep Britain Tidy

environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles/index.html